Proceedings of the 4th Information Interaction in Context Symposium

It is our pleasure to welcome you to the fourth Information Interaction in conteXt Symposium IIiX'12 in Nijmegen. The conference has been organized by the Radboud University Nijmegen, in cooperation with the University of Amsterdam and TNO. This symposium follows three prior IIiX symposia in Copenhagen ('06), London ('08) and New Brunswick ('10). These proceedings contain the refereed papers presented at the conference. The IIiX symposium explores the relationships between and within the contexts that affect information retrieval (IR) and information seeking, how these contexts impact information behavior, and how knowledge of information contexts and behaviors improves the design of interactive information systems. The intention of IIiX is to foster an integrated approach to information access by bringing together members of the research communities in information seeking behavior (Behavior Track), user interface design for IR systems (Interface Track), interactive IR (Interaction Track), and IR system design (System Track). From the 40 papers submitted to the conference, 13 belonged to the behavior track, 14 to the interaction track, 8 to the interface track and only 5 to the systems track. This distribution shows a clear focus on behavior and interaction, the 'core' areas of IIiX, while we do not yet fully reach out to the other two areas which are also highly relevant in this context. The PC selected 25 papers to be presented at the conference. The review and selection process was coordinated by four area chairs: Elaine Toms (behavior), Interaction (Kalervo Jarvelin), Interface (Max Wilson and Systems (Paul Thomas). In addition, 33 poster papers were submitted, of which 20 were accepted. Poster chair was Stefan Ruger. For the accompanying doctoral consortium, organized by Hideo Joho and Birger Larsen, 9 students applied, and 7 were accepted. The program also includes keynote talks Peter Ingwersen, Diane Kelly and Daniel Russell. We thank all authors for their submissions and the PC members and respective chairs for their efforts to create this balanced and varied program for IIiX2012. We are very pleased that IIiX'12 is followed by the co-located EuroHCIR workshop, organized by Tony Russell-Rose, Max L. Wilson, James Kalbach and Birger Larsen. IIiX'12 and EuroHCIR are followed by the second EU Intensive Programme 'Information Foraging', organized by Radboud University Nijmegen in cooperation with many lecturers from within the IIiX community.